wound injury

Question
Hi! a little bit of hesitation in asking coz it will give an impression of carelessness on my part but your good response to others has encouraged me to,
My dog is mixed breed GSD, 3 years old male, vaccinated,had its hind limb's thumb nail abnormally grown to very long and curved back to puncture the thumb, I trimmed the nail but thumb looked swollen too much, I cleansed the wound many times with antisceptic liquids, the thumb is returning to its normal size, it bleeds sometimes with just few drops of blood when dog bites or may be licks a bit harder, otherwise blood is not the problem. Dog limps occassionally, no bandage applied in order to leave it to dog to lick it at its will for naturral healing, no ointment applied as dog is very stubborn towards removing any covering or ointment. Is this practise OK? I have consulted a local vet on phone only. total time 4 days. Thanx for the suggestion in advance.

Answer
Personally, I wouldn't let the dog lick at the wound, but I would put him into an Elizabethan collar or one of those neck braces that prevent the dog from turning his head to chew/lick at himself. I would also continue with the antiseptic cleanser, and you could also put some triple antibiotic ointment on it at bedtime if he cannot lick it off.

Otherwise, what you are doing seems to be working, so you could probably continue with that until it is totally healed up.

Cut all his nails at least every week or two, and if you ever have him anesthetized for some reason, I would have those rear dewclaws removed as they could get caught on something and rip.